Holding On To Our Identity

Tony DeLorger © 2016

How Australia is changing, and may I say bluntly, not for the better. Born in the early fifties my growing up was a perfect upbringing: I had so much freedom, spent half my days in the bush, the natural world which I absolutely loved. Back then everything was so easy, so laid-back and carefree.

This is my understanding of the Aussie ethos: we are a tough, hard-working lot, easy going and always fair, willing to give a bloke a go. We love and protect our women and families and although with a sometimes rugged facade, we have hearts and are prideful of our way of life. Sure we might be rough around the edges, we may curse, drink too much and say it with a slap, but we are accepting and if you do right by us, we do right by you.

In the early days, when both Italian and Greek immigrants graced our shores, we gave it to them, made fun in our own inimitable way, but those immigrants learned of our sense of humour, and have assimilated into our culture and now are true Aussies who love this country like the rest of us. In fact the Anglos have probably adopted just as much of their culture as they have of ours. But now we're all in it together and we stick up for one another, as is our way.

So what's happened over the twenty to thirty years that seems to have changed the landscape here in the burnt country? In a nutshell, I believe there are some cultures that prohibit assimilation, especially to a laid-back society like Australia. We're the bronzed ones, love our casual , informal life, our beaches our sport and telling it like it is. When a culture is not open, is so different from ours and these people wish to become Australians, two things have to happen. One, they have to adopt our cultural identity, and accept our ethos as theirs, otherwise there will be no assimilation. Two, they have to blend in, adopt our clothing, our housing and our way of life, otherwise they will just create enclaves of their race or religion and literally divide society.

There is no prejudice her, or religious intolerance, just the simple fact that if people want to live in this Christian, English speaking nation, they are free to practice whatever religion they like, but they must assimilate, be one of us and not separate themselves for any reason. That is against all of our beliefs. So, are our latest immigrants from the middle east and parts of Europe, willing to become Australians? I don't think so. The nature of their culture and religion prohibits assimilation and therefore they will cause problems, dividing the very society that with open arms has embraced them.

Many Muslim men because of the dress codes of their native women, can't expect Aussie women to be the same, yet, they see our openness as a slur on our integrity and worse, see women as sexual prey, their openness an invitation. Recent happenings in Germany are prime examples, when hundred of Syrian refugees surrounded several woman and molested them, taunted them, called them names like 'sluts' and all but raped them on a railway platform. This open denigration of any woman is an absolute affront to any thinking culture, and this kind of behaviour cannot be tolerated. There have been many assaults here in Australia by Muslim men, who think they have the right to mistreat women, for their our pleasure and amusement.

So I say to you, how can we accept these people regardless of circumstance, when their culture tells them something very different about women, their place in society and their value as human beings. Surely, knowing this, we cannot allow any people, who will not assimilate into our culture, free passage into this great nation. Some cultures just won't blend with our Aussie way of life. And we want to preserve it, not flush it down the toilet.